Killer of banker wife sentenced to death

A High Court in Ikeja, Lagos State on Friday sentenced to death Akolade Arowolo for the murder of his wife, Titilayo, a banker.
Arowolo was said to have stabbed his wife 76 times during a quarrel at their residence in Isolo, Lagos State on June 24, 2011.
Delivering judgement on Friday in a case that had lasted over two years, Justice Lateefat Okunnu held that though there was no eyewitness to the incident, the circumstantial evidence adduced by the prosecution had proved the murder charge against the convict beyond all reasonable doubt.
Okunnu ruled: “I pronounce the defendant guilty and accordingly sentenced to death.”
Okunnu relied on the testimony of the forensic pathologist, Prof. John Obafunwa.
Obafunwa, the Lagos State pathologist, had told the court there were at least 76 stab wounds found on Titilayo.
Arowolo had claimed that Titilayo only fell on a knife during their quarrel.
But Obafunwa had said the stabs were deliberately carried out and not self-inflicted.
Okunnu said further on Friday: “Applying the eliminating induction by eliminating other factors, judging by this case the factors, including the possibilities of another person entering the flat to stab the deceased to death, the possibility of the deceased stabbing herself and the possibility of that the wounds were caused in autopsy room; it is my finding that no other persons but the defendant who stabbed Omotunde to death.
“This established the causal link between the death and the defendant.”